225: "Unwell Women" with Elinor Cleghorn

We, as women, have absorbed much history into ourselves over time regarding our bodies and our health. We wonder why we feel unheard and dismissed, and the more we learn, the more enraged we should become about how modern western medicine has treated women with medical and mental health conditions. Join today’s conversation for deep insight and a message of hope.  Dr. Elinor Cleghorn is a feminist cultural historian, and her critical writing has been published in several academic journals. After receiving her Ph.D. in 2012, she spent three years as a post-doctoral researcher at the Ruskin School, University of Oxford, where she worked on an interdisciplinary medical humanities project. She is the author of Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World, a book that I recommend highly to all our listeners.  Show Highlights: What brought Elinor to write the book after a lupus diagnosis that followed a very complicated pregnancy with her son How Elinor began her research with urgency into her lupus diagnosis and the history of medicine, expanding into other commonly misdiagnosed diseases in women Why Elinor began at the beginning, learning about ancient Greece and the formation of medical practice How women’s bodies were viewed largely as reproductive vessels to produce and mother male heirs Why men in ancient patriarchal societies began to assert social control over women and their bodies How the western medical model has been affected by social thinking, myths, and fantasies about women’s roles How the word hysteria has been applied to a misunderstanding of women and was originally derived from a word for the uterus How medical leverage was used in horrible ways against black enslaved women in 19th century America, leading to gynecological violence and reproductive abuse Why Elinor wanted her book to expand to cover women’s experiences all over the world and not just be her personal story What Elinor has discovered about women’s mental health across history How dominant ideas have shaped societal views about the ideal motherhood and “how mothers SHOULD feel” Elinor’s hopes for readers of the book: “Remember that your body is your own, no matter how medical caregivers might make you feel.” Resources: Amazon:  Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World by Elinor Cleghorn Connect with Elinor: Twitter and Instagram